ICCT: China is pulling ahead in the sales of electric trucks and buses

In China, last year nearly 30 percent of all new registrations in the heavy truck segment were fully electric. While other regions of the world also report higher sales of electric commercial vehicles, no one can come close to matching China’s pace. This is according to a new ICCT report on global demand for electric commercial vehicles.

The International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) regularly provides insights into the progress of electrification in various regions around the world. In their new report titled “Global EV Market Monitor: Trucks and Buses,” the organization’s analysts examine how electric buses and trucks can establish themselves in the global market. The study covers 34 specific countries, which account for approximately 80 percent of global truck and bus sales overall, as well as 99 percent of sales of zero-emission trucks and buses.

In general, ICCT considers medium- and heavy-duty electric vehicles in the study, using the acronym ZE-MHDV (“zero-emission medium- and heavy-duty vehicle”). This applies to trucks with a permissible total weight of over 3.5 tons. Thus, larger electric vans such as the Mercedes eSprinter with a weight of 4.25 tons are also included in the statistics. This point must be kept in mind when defining the scope.

With this in mind, here are the key findings: Across the 34 countries studied, sales of electric trucks and buses nearly doubled in 2025 for the second consecutive year according to ICCT, rising by +86% YoY. The total reached 520,000 electric units, accounting for about 14 percent of the global market. This rapid growth is driven primarily by China, which accounted for 88 percent of worldwide sales of medium- and heavy-duty electric commercial vehicles. However, this figure was once higher: “China’s relative market share is gradually declining as sales in other markets accelerate,” write the analysts.

This changes little about China's dominant position. 457,300 of the roughly 520,000 electric vehicles came from this leader in the field. Without China, global sales of medium- and heavy-duty electric commercial vehicles in 2025 amounted to about 63,000 units, led by the United States, the European Union, and India. The United States accounted for about 40 percent of sales outside China, which the study authors attributed “primarily to medium-duty electric trucks.”

In fact, the composition of electric commercial vehicle sales in 2025 varied significantly by country. Among the 457,300 units sold in China, heavy and medium-duty trucks dominated, while buses accounted for only 11 percent of sales. In the United States, according to ICCT, over 90 percent of electric vehicle sales in the analyzed segment were medium-duty trucks, with buses and heavy trucks each accounting for only about 3 to 4 percent. In India and Brazil, the electric commercial vehicle market was primarily driven by buses and coaches, which made up more than half of electric sales in these regions. Electric trucks remain rare there. Here is an overview:

In the European Union, both segments—electric buses and electric trucks—are growing. Overall, ICCT projects that there will be over 23,700 new medium- and heavy-duty electric commercial vehicles in Europe by 2025. Zero-emission trucks (over 3.5 tons) account for 4.5 percent of sales, while electric buses already make up 24.8 percent of the total market.

The analysts write, “Sales growth was particularly strong in the segment of zero-emission medium-duty trucks and vans (3.5–12 tons), where the share of zero-emission vehicles more than doubled, rising from 10.4% in 2024 to 21.0% in 2025.” The market for zero-emission buses and coaches, which remains largely driven by city buses, also saw significant growth. The share of electric city buses in total registrations increased from 45% to 58% between 2024 and 2025, while the share of electric intercity and coach buses remained stable at around 4% in both years. The following two charts provide details on the development of electric commercial vehicle sales in the European Union (EU-27):

Across all countries studied, the ICCT finds that the composition of vehicle categories in global sales shifted significantly from electric buses to electric trucks between 2020 and 2025. This is largely due to the rapid growth in China’s truck sector. It is clear that buses accounted for the majority of all registered electric commercial vehicles worldwide in 2020, reflecting the initial focus on electrification in urban public transportation. By 2022, however, the combined sales of medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks surpassed those of electric buses for the first time — “and the gap widened rapidly thereafter,” according to the ICCT. As shown in the following chart:

In 2025, electric trucks accounted for 86 percent of all electric vehicles recorded in statistics. Thus, the situation has reversed compared to 2020. The sales volume of heavy electric trucks alone more than doubled from 2024 to 2025, reaching nearly 240,000 units in the previous year, making heavy trucks the largest single category among the analyzed electric vehicles worldwide according to ICCT. China once again plays a leading role: In the heavy truck segment alone, 28 percent of all new registrations in China were fully electric last year, meaning sales there have more than quintupled within two years. Battery swap systems play a role in this: As the study authors emphasize, innovative charging and battery swapping infrastructure as well as standards for battery swapping have further accelerated their adoption.

In the case of medium-duty electric trucks, China produced 174,700 units last year (accounting for 22% of the total Chinese market), while heavy-duty electric trucks reached 232,000 units (representing 28% of the market). For buses and coaches, ICCT counted 50,500 electric units (29% of China’s bus market, with city buses having an electrification rate of nearly 100%). The steep upward trend in growth is underscored by ICCT’s finding that sales of medium-duty and heavy-duty electric commercial vehicles in China have increased by 527% since 2020, with a 98% rise from 2024 to 2025.

In the U.S., the situation could hardly be more contrasting: The 25,427 newly registered medium- and heavy-duty electric commercial vehicles accounted for only 3.1 percent of the total market. By segment, medium-duty electric trucks led with 23,655 units (representing 4.4% of electric vehicles in the U.S.), followed by buses and coaches with 897 electric units (also 4.4% of electric vehicles) and heavy-duty trucks with 875 units (0.3% of electric vehicles). The cumulative sales of all these electric commercial vehicles changed little compared to 2024 (+2% year-over-year). Thus, this market is not growing in the U.S.